ABOUT TIME

Earlier this week, the gospel reading a mass told is that Jesus was preaching in

the temple, but the Pharisees and other enemies did not arrest him “because his hour had not yet come” (Jn 7:30).  

The Greek word that is translated “hour” is the noun kairos.

I’d like to reflect in this post on this very special word.

The Greeks had two words for “time.” The first is the kind of time you measure out in months, minutes and milliseconds. That is called chronos (which gives us such English words “chronological” and “chronometer”). This is time as something measurable, divisible into quantities. In the Parable of the Talents a master goes off on a journey and returns “after a long time (chronos) (Mt. 25:19).” Paul tells the elders of Miletus, “You know how I have lived among you the whole time (chronos) from the day I first came to the province of Asia. (Ac. 20:18)" We’re well acquainted with this sort of time; but in Greek there’s a second word for time, one which is central to understanding the Gospel message.

While chronos refers to time as measured off in minutes and hours, the second

word, kairos, means time as an event, an occasion or an opportunity. This is the time we refer to in expressions such as “We had a great time.” or “It’s high time we did something” or “It’s time to start.” Chronos answers the questions “What time is it?” and “How much time is left.” Kairos, on the other hand, is concerned with much deeper questions: “What’s the meaning of this moment?” “What is the significance of this event?”

Kairos has various meanings in the NT. It is often translated “season” – that is, a time that has a purpose, such as the season for harvest. The Septuagint translation of the famous passage in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 begins "A time (kairos) to be born and a time  (kairos)  to die." Jesus walked up to a fig tree but found no fruit on it because “it was not the season  (kairos)  for figs. (Mk. 11:13)”

Kairos also has the sense of "a suitable time, an opportunity." The faithful servant in charge of the household will “distribute food to them at the due time (kairos)  (Mt. 24:45)” St. Paul encourages us, “Let us not grow tired of doing good, for in due time (kairos) we shall reap our harvest…. So then, while we have the opportunity (kairos) , let us do good to all… (Gal. 6:10)"

Sometimes kairos refers to the time ordained for the fulfilling of a prophecy, as when the angel Gabriel says to Zechariah, “But now you will be speechless and unable to talk until these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their proper time (their  kairos) . (Lk 1:20)” Jesus warns his hearers to be on watch for the final days, “Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time  (kairos)  will come! (Mk. 13:33)”   

     

While we are learning how to measure time (chronos) more and more precisely, we seem to be losing our sense of kairos, of what time is for, of what our life ultimately means. For many people, time has lost its purpose. Boredom and depression haunt supposedly successful people who feel their lives are empty and meaningless, while depression and despair dog the poor and disadvantaged because they have no sense of a better future to give them hope. 

Lots of people try to fill the time as if it were an empty container by watching endless hours of mind-numbing television sitcoms, surfing the internet, or paging through meaningless magazines. Others even try to kill time as if it were a pesky weed or a threatening monster. Our world knows only chronos, how to measure it and use it, and cannot answer the kairos question, "What is this all ultimately about anyway?"   

Christians believe, though, that since the coming of Christ into time and space at

the Incarnation, there simply is no more chronos -- everything is kairos. When God came among us as a human, all of creation was given ultimate meaning, and all time became special and sacred. From that moment, every event of life is part of the unfolding story of God's love for the world. 

There is a catch, though: I still have to decide every day to live in kairos, to cooperate with God's saving plan for me. When I do this, the time I spend at the office or relaxing in front of the television or cooking supper, all of that is now sacred time, kairos. 

If, on the other hand, I insist on living in my own self-centered time, writing my own version of the story instead of God's, then I'm caught in the clutches of chronos and condemned to a life that has no real meaning. This refusal to live in God's kairos is what we call sin.

Kairos is a key to understanding Christian living. 

First, it teaches me to stay in the present moment, because this is the only time I can possibly meet God. I can't encounter the Divine in the past, because yesterday is gone, nor in the future, because tomorrow never gets here. Paul reminds the Corinthians, “Behold, now is the acceptable time (kairos), now is the day of salvation (2 Cor. 6:2).”

When I'm truly living in kairos, the joy of the kingdom will shine out in my way of speaking and acting. When my work, my play, and even my suffering are all sacred, then there will be no place in my life for work that is half-hearted or slovenly, for entertainment that is degrading to the human person, or for suffering that is separated from a sense of hope. Even the darkest and most painful hours of my life will be lived with special meaning: they are my own Gethsemane, my personal Calvary, my mysterious sharing in Christ's saving kairos of passion, death and resurrection.

If  I spend my whole life trying to live in kairos, trying to imitate Christ as best I can, then death itself loses its sting (I Cor. 15:55), and in the words of the Preface in the mass of Christian Burial, "life is changed, not ended." Dying is simply the deepening of my experience of the kairos that I've already been faithfully living on earth all this time, decade by decade, year by year, minute by minute, and, yes, to second. 

During the upcoming days of  Passiontide and Holy Week, we will celebrate alongside Jesus when His kairos has come, the "hour" of our salvation.